Training a Pack

Tara lay in her bed and let the sounds of nature outside of her window lull her to sleep. Her family home in the woods may seem scary at night to some but she found it peaceful. Other foster kids often came and went. Many of them were from the city and didn't like to hear bears foraging for food, squirrels and racoons fighting over the bird feeders, and wolves howling as they patrolled their territory. Foster kids would be dropped off and then beg their worker to take them somewhere else after several nights of insomnia brought on by what they described as creepy animals in the woods.

John and Susan were kind parents and rarely raised their voices. Unable to have children of their own they opened their cabin to children with no parents. Tara was only a baby when they took her in. There was no record of her birth parents, so they'd adopted her, knowing they would be her best chance at a stable life.

Chores while growing up were reasonable. She and the other children taught and guided through tasks only when they were physically able to do them without risking harming themselves and they were only left alone to do those tasks once John and Susan were sure they could do their chores with confidence. Most of those chores just kept the home in clean working order and ensured everyone was fed. Children who worked hard enough and proved to be responsible were given the privilege of owning a pet. Tara had earned the offer, but she preferred to befriend the wild animals outside. As long as they were healthy enough to survive in their natural habitat, she would never try to keep one inside of the house. The animal just wouldn't be happy in a human home.

When Tara opened her eyes the next morning and realized that the sounds of nature had been replaced by the sound of some sort of machine, she was extremely confused. Her breathing sped up and she began to panic in her unfamiliar surroundings. She was still in her pink flannel pajamas but the bed she was laying on was definitely not her bed. In fact, as she sat up to look around the entire thing folded underneath her into a chair.

"Whoa there," a boy close to her age said as his bed folded into a seat next to hers, "Take it easy. I know waking up here the first day can be scary but it's okay. Nobody is going to hurt you. Take a deep breath and get your bearings."

"Where are we," she finally asked after closing her eyes and slowing her breathing. She knew she needed to take things as they came and having a panic attack would not be helpful.

"We don't know. Some sort of train. It never seems to stop but when we wake up in the mornings there's sometimes new people," he explained.

She looked around. There were others on the train, either waking up or appeared to have just woken up, with an unusual number of similarities. For one, they were all teenagers. They were all pale with platinum blonde hair and bright blue eyes, just like her.

"Shouldn't we be more concerned? This could be a human trafficking thing," she pointed out.

He laughed lightly, "I've been on this train for three years. More come but no one ever leaves. If they wanted to sell us, wouldn't they have sold someone by now?"

"You're not concerned about this train ever reaching the end of the line," she looked out the window in time to glimpse a small house nestled in the trees at the end of a long path.

"We pass that exact same house at the exact same time every morning. There never seems to be a station we go through or anything different outside. We're travelling in a closed loop. There is no end of the line," he continued dismissing her fears as if he were used to having this conversation with newcomers. She realized that he probably was, and she was unlikely to ask anything he hadn't already answered much the same way. They were on a train with no end of the trip in sight, but they were also not in any foreseeable danger. When she seemed to be out of questions, he held his hand out, "I'm Will. What's your name?"

"I'm Tara," she shook his hand but still didn't want to be here.

"Feel free to explore and get to know the others, Tara. Everyone here is pretty nice," he tried to encourage her.

Throughout the rest of the day, she did exactly that. The others were all kind and opened up to embrace the newcomer immediately, as if somehow, she really belonged here with them. Some tried to offer her comfort while others offered to play games as a distraction from the shock. Every other car was a recreation room with all manner of games and books on hand.

The other kids told her stories of their lives that gave her just a bit of whiplash as they were so similar to her own story. They each were found as infants in common places to abandon an unwanted newborn. Those who had read their own records knew that they had been found in good health in a place guaranteed to provide good care and were said by pediatricians to be only hours old when they were found. They all grew up loving nature and providing for family and friends in any way they could find to do so. The detail that interested her most, although she had no idea what it meant, was that the last thing each of them heard before waking up on the train was the howling of wolves.

The few adults on the train were not very talkative and didn't look like the kids. Their skin was closer to a tan shade, and they had auburn shoulder length or longer hair, and striking green eyes. They seemed to be there as caretakers for the teens as they brought food and drinks and remained present throughout the day to provide medical care or answer snack requests. In spite of their distant behavior, they gave off a soothing energy. Being near them was almost ethereal and helped ease Tara's sadness of being away from home at an unnatural pace. By dinner time Tara had accepted her new reality and even found peace in the certainty of her unchanging future.

After dinner the others seemed to get very tired, and the seats folded back up into beds on their own. She laid down on the bed she'd woken up on that morning. Within minutes everyone else was asleep. Tara, on the other hand, felt restless. The peace had gone with the adults when they left the passenger cars for the night. Everything in her screamed that something was about to happen, and she wasn't sure how she should feel about it. She tried to sleep. She tried to tell herself that she was fine, but she just couldn't shake that weird feeling.

She didn't actually have to wait very long to find out what that feeling was about. The other kids began whimpering in their sleep. She turned to Will and tried to wake him, only to realize upon grabbing what should have been his bare arm that he was growing a rapidly thickening layer of white fur. She let go and looked around. The others all had the same fur growing from every patch of skin she could see. Looking down at her own hands, she experienced with some relief that she wasn't experiencing the same phenomenon. Her relief was short lived as a second later Will cried out painfully in his sleep, sounding much like an injured dog, in response to a sickening crack coming from his hand. Her eyes widened in horror as she watched the bones in his hand breaking and reforming themselves.

She grabbed the blanket and ran to the next car, locking the door behind her and running to lock the door to the next compartment as well. Whatever they were turning into she didn't want to be around to find out what they would do if they woke up with a human in their environment. After calming herself enough to settle on a couch to try and sleep she saw out the window that the train had stopped. She looked closer and saw the doors leading outside from every passenger car open to let out the several hundred wolves that had apparently been inhabiting the train. As a group they all ran off into the forest. It had to be a forest, right? The train had been surrounded by trees all day.

With barely a thought to anything beyond escape, Tara ran back though the passenger car and out the open door. Within seconds of reaching the ground however a pair of arms wrapped around her firmly from behind and pulled her back inside. She tried to scream, only for a hand to clamp over her mouth before the sound could alert any wolves.

"Stop. You don't want to go out there yet. I can explain what's happening, but I need you to calm down first," a firm but soothing voice spoke into her ear, and she felt the calm that came with the presence of the adults return.

She relaxed and waited for him to let her go so she could turn and look him in the eye, "What did you do to them," she asked with a slight tremble in her voice.

He gave her a pitying look and sat down on the nearest bed, "We've done nothing more or less than try to protect them and you. You were sent to be raised by humans, but you are not human, and this is not the human world you grew up in. This world is where you were born."

She sat down across from him and focused on the calm feeling his presence brought her, "Okay. So, what am I? How did I go from one world to another and why did they change, and I didn't?"

"You are a werewolf, an arctic werewolf to be exact. My name is Ash. I am an elf, and it was our magic that sent you away and brought you back.

Your parents and grandparents were killed by a rival pack, the timber wolves, who wanted to expand their territory for resources. As allies we agreed to help your pack rebuild by giving you a new home in our forest. It took two tries to wear your parents pack down and take their land. The first time showed the Arctics that the Timbers were too strong to stand against and win.

Mating season is a time of peace without fear of attack so every female in your pack that was old enough to mate got pregnant. Some delivered dangerously large litters. We took those children and any children too young to fight and sent them to the human world. The older ones were deaged so they would not have to remember the terror of the war. That way when the Timbers searched our forest for the children, they could not find you.

Due to our soothing presence and powerful barriers, no wolf pack dares to seek out elven land for themselves and we never try to expand our borders. We offer you the land in our forest that this train circles as a new home and sanctuary. Your pack would be safe here.

As for why you didn't change, it is safe to assume that you are the alpha. We found a few members of the pack once they began turning and let them go out every night to call for more. Each wolf on the brink of their first turn would sleepwalk over the veil between worlds to join the others. The alpha would only come when all living members of the pack call at once but will only turn on the full moon. That's still a few weeks away. Once you turn, they'll only turn when you do, and they'll remember what happens during their wolf time. On instinct they will follow you. If you are ready to rebuild, they will be too," he did his best to explain her history and something inside of her told her to trust him.

"Why are we all different ages then and how do I know you're telling the truth," Tara asked.

"Wouldn't the humans have noticed if over five hundred newborns that look as much the same as you all do just show up within weeks of one another without any sign of who your parents are," he asked but then continued, "We were limited on locations as we had to ensure you all grew up speaking the same language. To ensure you remained hidden in that world we chose an era where humans have a foster system to keep you all as safe as orphans can get and spread the timing of where you all landed by about seven years.

As an alpha wolf you have an instinct that tells you who to trust. You've always been able to spot a lie even if it was well told and knew when you were hearing the truth no matter how out there it was. This tells you who you can trust and helps you find any traitors in your pack. It helps you keep everyone safe."

"So now what," she asked after absorbing the information and trying to process it.

"Now we wait. You can enjoy the ride and once the full moon comes again you may take your pack and choose not to return to the train if you don't want to. We'll always be available to help if you need it. This is your life. Make of it what you will," he offered guidance with the promise of freedom.

She looked out the window and smiled at the sound of her pack howling. She knew how to feel about the change now. She was excited to join them soon. She would use her time to get to know anyone who would let her. This train was not an inconvenient kidnapper. It was her ride home and she was almost there.